What Is a Good Average Position in Google Search Console? (And How to Fix a Bad One)
By Toy Wen Da, Co-Founder · Updated · 6 min read · scored 89/100
A good average position in Google Search Console is usually 1 to 10, because that range puts your page on the first page of Google's results. Positions 11 to 20 land on page two, where click-through rates fall off fast, and anything above 20 means most searchers never see you.
SearchBlueprint's free Keyword Rank Checker shows where a domain actually sits for a specific keyword on Google's real results page, with no login. It makes a useful sanity check against the average position number inside your Search Console account.
What does average position actually mean?
Average position isn't a ranking you can see on a results page. It's a calculated mean: Google adds up the position your page held for every impression it received, then divides by the total number of impressions. If your page showed up at position 3 for one search and position 7 for another, your average position for those two impressions is 5.
The math has a quirk. If the same person searches the same term twice in one session and your page appears at different spots, Google counts only the topmost position that visitor saw. A page's average position can also shift when nothing about your content or rankings has changed, because the mix of queries pulling in impressions changed instead.
The same blending explains why a page can look oddly average. A page ranking #1 for its brand name and #35 for a broad industry term might show an average position of 18, which looks mediocre even though it performs extremely well for one of those two queries.
How to check your average position in Google Search Console
- Open Search Console and click Performance in the left navigation.
- In the metrics row above the chart, click Average Position to turn it on. A checkmark and a color-coded line confirm it's active.
- Set your date range. You can pick 24 hours, 7 days, 28 days or 3 months, or click More for a longer or custom range. For most sites, 28 days is the better default because it smooths out day-to-day noise.
- Scroll down to the Queries, Pages, Countries and Devices tabs. Each row shows clicks, impressions, CTR and position side by side, so you can tell whether a weak average position is a ranking problem or a visibility problem.
- Use Add Filter to narrow by query, page, country or device when you want to isolate one issue rather than read the whole-site average.
Reading the filters correctly
The query and page filters offer the same four modes: containing a term, excluding a term, an exact match, or a custom regex pattern for advanced filtering. Use "exact query" or "exact URL" when you're troubleshooting one specific ranking drop, and "containing" when you want to see a whole topic cluster at once.
Average position ranges at a glance
| Average Position | What It Typically Means | Click Behavior | What to Do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | Top of page one, often in or near the featured snippet zone | High CTR relative to impressions | Protect it, monitor for content decay and refresh regularly |
| 4–10 | Still page one, lower half | Moderate CTR, sensitive to title and snippet quality | Improve title tags and meta descriptions to lift CTR |
| 11–20 | Page two | Low CTR even with decent impressions | Strengthen on-page SEO and build relevant backlinks |
| 20+ | Page three or beyond | Very low to negligible clicks | Reassess search intent match and content depth, or deprioritize the keyword |
When Search Console's own tools are enough, and when they aren't
Search Console is sufficient for one URL with a one-off dip. Say a page's average position slipped for a week: you check the query and page filters, find a seasonal or algorithm-related explanation, and move on. The built-in filters cover that case well.
It falls short when the problem is site-wide or recurring. If average position is sliding across dozens of pages at once, or the same pattern keeps reappearing month after month, you're usually looking at a structural issue such as crawling, indexing or a technical misconfiguration, and the Performance report alone won't diagnose it. A redirect loop or an outdated index can quietly distort what the report shows, so see this guide on fixing a page stuck with a redirect in Google Search Console if pages aren't resolving the way you'd expect. If the numbers look stale or frozen, check why Google Search Console isn't updating and what to do about it before you draw conclusions from a report that hasn't refreshed.
Common mistakes when judging average position
- Reading the site-wide average as one number. It blends branded queries, long-tail queries and competitive head terms into a single figure that fits none of them well.
- Panicking over a daily swing. Position data is noisy from day to day, and a 28-day view is far more reliable.
- Ignoring impressions and clicks. A great average position with few impressions usually means low search volume, not low rankings, so add more related keywords instead of chasing the position number alone.
- Assuming a low average position always means a ranking failure. Sometimes the page ranks fine but the title and snippet don't earn the click.
- Comparing average position across time periods with very different traffic. Seasonal queries can swing the average without any real change in rankings.
FAQs
Is average position 3 good in Google Search Console?
Yes. Position 3 puts you near the top of page one, typically a strong spot for organic clicks, especially for commercial or informational queries without heavy ad competition above it.
Why is my average position high but my clicks are low?
This usually points to a title tag or meta description that doesn't match what searchers are looking for, or a search intent mismatch between your content and the query.
Does average position affect my Google ranking?
No. It's a reporting metric, not a ranking factor. It describes where you've been ranking based on real impressions, and it doesn't influence where Google places you next.
Why does my average position change without me editing the page?
The query mix behind your impressions changes constantly. New queries triggering impressions, seasonal search behavior and shifts in competitor rankings all move the average even when your content stays the same.
What's a bad average position?
Anything consistently above 20 is generally considered weak. It places you on page three or later, where organic click-through rates drop close to zero.
Check your own numbers next
A good average position in Google Search Console only matters when you read it next to clicks, impressions and CTR for the specific pages and queries that matter to your business. Pull up your Performance report, filter to your most important landing pages, and compare the 28-day trend against last month before deciding anything is broken. If you want a second set of eyes on what those numbers mean for your site, talk to the team and get a sample SEO report built around your own data.
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About the author
SearchBlueprint researched, wrote and scored this article with the content pipeline our customers run on their own sites. The score in the byline is what our content engine gave this page before it published. Nothing here is reviewed by hand, which is the point: it is the product's output, published where anyone can check it.